Dear ATA community,

Like most of you, we have spent the last three weeks recovering from a punch in the collective stomach. While the shelter-in-place order did not catch us by surprise, it, along with the severity of the COVID 19 virus crisis, was still a shock to everyone’s system.
 
Our number one priority remains the health and safety of our entire community.  My personal goals and focus right now are as follows:

1. Don’t get COVID 19 personally. I am, as well as some of our older patrons and coaches,  in the high risk age group over 60 with pre-existing health issues. 
2. Don’t spread COVID 19. 
3. Do things that will allow ATA to continue long term after this crisis period. Keep our coaches, teachers and staff financially sound. 
4. Keep our academy players in a rhythm, getting better in all areas so when they can compete again, they are ready to do well and excel in all areas of their game.
5. Provide our younger, non-academy players as much support as possible. 

Without a doubt the COVID 19 pandemic has forced players, parents, coaches and society in general out of rhythm and purpose.  Since we are not on court there are challenges, but there are plenty of things to improve, as our mental training sessions this past year has taught us.

We feel the number one thing we should be doing is help create rhythm and purpose for our players. By having our fitness and academy meeting at our normal time, doing our normal things, we hope to bring at least some level of normalcy to our players.  And they have responded, virtual attendance has been close to 90{37ef6ac642fae6f93f343032eb62785d28fa7a25a4a4f0267a12512c541c53a9} of ATA players. 

I am so proud of how our coaching staff has responded to providing quality virtual improvement, team camaraderie and fun these past weeks.  And we are prepared to continue providing as the crisis continues.  There is great value in helping our players have rhythm. 

Our messaging to players has been along this line: “Our goals have not changed. We need to act like pros: we get up and make our beds; we get ready to do amazing at school; we get ready to push it in fitness with Josh and Dio; we have a short break and then we have academy practice, same rhythm, same timing as if we were on the court. We are getting better as tennis athletes every day because we are on a disciplined path.”

Our fitness and academy sessions have another set of objectives. We want our players to:
* Feel Safe
* Feel the ATA community sense of Belonging
* Think Positively and have hope about our Futures

We are trying to act as agents of ongoing purpose for you and your tennis players. It’s incredibly important to have a collective purpose for our community.  

One of our goals is to have our players making good decisions. The more stress we are under, the worse our decision making. By creating rhythm we are reducing stress, and this helps our players make better decisions.
 
Players recently heard from Dr. Jim Loehr. He is a great believer in the power of story. In every story, there is a villain and then some sort of massive action to conquer the villain. The story arc is that we don’t have a court because COVID 19, the villain has stole it. What is our massive collective action going to be to defeat that villain and come out of this stronger and better? By staying in rhythm and working hard together, we will defeat the villain of our lives story. Stay focused on your long term goal. 

The current news coming out stated Texas Governor Abbott is working on recommendations on how to safely reopen businesses.  We will be following the guidelines and hope to be back on the court and in the gym soon.  I know our team would welcome that.  We are hard workers who want and need to get back to work on the tennis court.  However, we do not want to do anything which endangers our students, staff, families or community. 

I imagine our come back will be staggered with private lessons resuming in person first, utilizing the precautions we were following before the shelter-in-place order took place, as well as the addition of face coverings for coaches and students. With modified group training to follow as safety dictates.

At this time, we are not sure of the timeline, but will keep you up to speed. 
In the meantime, please help your ATA player attend our virtual sessions.  There are great things happening in these sessions.  Feel free to attend yourself, especially our fitness sessions, exercise does everyone good. 

In fact, parents are invited to join Coaches Josh and Dio in a collaborative fitness session with the SotoTennis Academy in Spain. The livestream called Fitness Aces happens on Tuesday mornings at 9 am. You can watch it live on ATA’s FaceBook page or view at a later time which works in your schedule. Here’s a little video teaser.

From our entire staff, we wish to send safety, health and happiness to everyone in the ATA community.

Hoping to see you at ATA soon,
Coach Newman

Jack Newman
CEO
Austin Tennis Academy.